Thursday, September 24, 2009

Things that make you go "hmmm"...

More than once I've been...accused is too strong a word, I guess, but it has been suggested, of taking stylistic liberties with someone else's ideas, borrowing, appropriating, stealing, call it whatever. I've never consciously done such a thing, but since there are no new ideas under the sun coincidences do happen. So I try to be understanding when I see elements I have introduced in my own work turning up in someone else's work. The problem is when the artist coincidently introducing those same elements has a higher profile than I do (which wouldn't take much). Then, when my work including those elements gets whatever recognition it has, it appears I have ripped off that artist, whose work is seen before and more often and publicly than mine.
So it is, with an element I introduced into my paintings about ten years ago.
Here's an example of the element:



It's a simple circle, achieved by loosely applying a circular surface with paint onto the surface of the piece. Here's the first example of my having used it in an abstract painting, in about 1999:




Here's an example of its application in a fairly recent landscape painting from a couple of years ago:



And here's the more recent application, from my current "Rooster Series":



Okay. I'm not accusing anyone of stealing a minor design element from me. The artist in question is one I've been personally acquainted with in the past, although I haven't seen her in several years. Her work is featured in the new issue of a prominent regional art magazine. The loose circular element is used as a design device throughout the article and is seen in one of the featured paintings. I first noticed this similarity in one of her paintings on view at a Santa Fe gallery I was visiting last year. Now it's a major element in a magazine profile of her work. So whatever exposure my paintings utilizing this element may receive in the future will appear to the uninformed to be taking an element she originated. This kind of thing happens, and is more often than not innocent, and I'm going to assume it is in this case. I'm not happy about, but pointing this out is all I can do about it, and I think it's an important thing to do.
So there.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

Illustration Friday - "Infinite"


Back to "Illustration Friday", with this week's theme of "Infinite". The great illustrator Don Ivan Punchatz has had an infinite influence and inspiration on many of us in our artistic endeavors.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Opening reception for "Emperors and Roosters"

Here are photos from Saturday, September 12, the opening reception of "Emperors and Roosters", Norwood Flynn Gallery.
A good time was had by all.


































Friday, September 11, 2009

"Emperors and Roosters"

My show "Emperors and Roosters" opens tomorrow (Saturday) night, with a reception 6- 8:30 pm, at Norwood Flynn Gallery, 3318 Shorecrest, Dallas, Texas. Photos of the event to come afterwards.



Here's the "Artist Statement" which accompanies the exhibit.

Every artist approaches a painting with the basic elements in mind; surface, shape, texture, pattern and color. The question then becomes what subject will best serve as an opportunity to explore those elements. For this collection of work the Rooster, a regional icon and powerful metaphor for energy and genesis, became that motif. The Rooster as a subject also connects to my early memories of these strutting birds reiterating their place in the farmyard hierarchy. In a painting he becomes the framework on which to create studies of those pictorial elements while never permitting his natural sovereignty and dignity to be eclipsed.